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Press Releases & Articles
Casinos Must Stop Renting Guests
by
Martin R. Baird
(Print,
PDF)
I’ve been waiting for this to happen. As news emerged of declining
casino revenues in such key markets as Atlantic City and Las Vegas,
I figured it wouldn’t be long before properties rolled out deals to
lure customers.
In April, the Wall Street Journal reported on hot deals in Las Vegas
featuring room rates well below $100. The list of customer
incentives was long indeed. And the Journal found offers far beyond
Nevada. Here’s what the Journal said: “The deals aren’t just in
Vegas. Casino resorts across the country in everywhere from Atlantic
City, N.J., to Detroit are offering to pay for guests’ gasoline,
theater tickets, massages and steak dinners.”
In other words, the nation’s sluggish economy has impacted the
gaming industry as people pay more attention to where and how they
spend their money. I don’t blame casinos for cooking up some great
deals, and I certainly hope casino guests find these offers too good
to ignore.
But there’s a huge problem here. Casinos are focused on renting
customers when they should concentrate their energy and resources on
creating devoted guests – guests who continue to play at their
favorite casino in good times and bad because they enjoy it so much.
Casinos may attract customers with specials, but they will fade away
once the specials are gone. This does not create future growth.
Stop renting guests!
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but the state of our economy
makes it more important than ever. Casinos must focus on creating an
outstanding gaming experience that turns guests into advocates.
Forget about satisfied guests and their comment cards. In fact,
throw those comment cards in the trash. I’m talking about guests who
are so wowed by the fun they have at a casino that they become
advocates for it of their own free will.
Everyone at the casino, including middle managers and the staff
members who report to them, can make this happen because they have
the power to create that gaming experience.
What casino wouldn’t want repeat business? That’s what guest
advocates can give them. Advocates play at their favorite casino
again and again and again. In my book, that’s repeat business.
What casino wouldn’t want new business, especially these days?
That’s right, guest advocates can make that happen, too. Advocates
risk their personal reputation by recommending their neat and fun
casino to family, friends and coworkers. The amazing thing is they
do this without any prompting from the casino. When family and
friends give the casino a whirl, that’s new business. Wow those new
customers with an excellent gaming experience and you can turn them
into advocates, too. Then they recommend your casino to their
friends and the process repeats itself.
Surely you can see what this means. When you get the guest advocacy
cycle going at your casino, you do more than boost your business
today. You create future growth. So I ask again, what casino
wouldn’t want that?
Enough with your fixation on guest satisfaction. I guarantee
customers who take advantage of casinos’ hot deals will be
satisfied. But that doesn’t mean they will come back. Comment cards
tell you how many guests are satisfied on a particular day, but that
still means nothing. Casino guests are fickle. They can be happy on
Tuesday because they won a few dollars and unhappy on Thursday
because they lost $200 or the buffet wasn’t as good as usual. The
comment cards they filled out on those days canceled each other out.
That leaves the casino holding worthless data.
But if you measure the extent to which you have advocates and
express it as an index and then make internal improvements to create
more advocates, you have valuable, useful data. It’s easy for
managers and employees to track their progress in creating advocates
because all they have to do is watch the index. The more advocates
you have, the higher the index goes. That climbing index represents
future revenue growth. And if you can expect your revenue to
increase by a certain amount each time the index goes up a few
points, that also means you have predictable growth.
If you think casino guest advocates are a pipe dream, think about
this. You are an advocate for some business somewhere. Everybody
does it. Let’s say a friend has an important date and asks you to
recommend a restaurant that will make a memorable impression. Odds
are you pass along the name of a favorite eatery. This is a
restaurant that you’ve been patronizing for years and you just
risked your reputation by recommending it. But you took the risk
because you know your friend and his date will love it. Guess what?
You are an advocate. I have a business associate who buys all his
office supplies at the same store because the service there is so
good. He actually likes going there. He recommends it to other
people. He is an advocate.
Casino guest advocates are real people and they matter, especially
now as everyone wonders how long it will take the economy to
rebound. Now is the time to stop renting guests and start creating
that memorable gaming experience that generates advocates for your
property.
Martin R. Baird is author of “Advocate Index™: An Operational Tool”
and chief executive officer of Robinson & Associates, Inc., a
customer service consulting firm for the gaming industry. Robinson &
Associates helps casinos determine their Advocate Index, a number
that indicates the extent to which properties have guests who are
willing to be advocates, and then implements its Advocate
Development System to help casinos create more guest advocates. The
Advocate Development System uses the proven methodology of Advocate
Index in combination with best business practices to chart a course
for growth and profitability. More information about the Advocate
Development System and Robinson and Associates is available at the
company’s Web sites at www.advocatedevelopmentsystem.com and
www.casinocustomerservice.com. Robinson & Associates may be reached
by phone at 206-774-8856 or by e-mail at mbaird@casinocustomerservice.com.
Based in Boise, Idaho, Robinson & Associates is a member of the
Casino Management Association and an associate member of the
National Indian Gaming Association.
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